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With the departure of Alex Gonzalez to Toronto, it’s time to move on and explore what options are available to Boston to man the shortstop position in 2010 — and possibly beyond. I’ve gone through some potential free-agent and trade options and then tied it all in a neat little bow for consideration.

Internal options include Jed Lowrie and Jose Iglesias.

The free agent market has a bevy of options, but they all have their drawbacks. From Marco Scutaro to Adam Everett to Miguel Tejada to Craig Counsell — yes, Craig Counsell — we have you covered here.

Nick Cafardo says the Red Sox have placed a waiver claim on shortstop Cristian Guzman. 31, Guzman has revived his career over the last three years with the Washington Nationals, hitting well over .300 each of the three years.

Average to below-average defensively according to certain defensive metrics, Guzman also cannot take a walk. However, when hitting .300 with decent pop, you can’t complain. Guzman would represent a vast improvement. He’s in the first year of a two-year, $16 million contract. The Sox desperately need someone like Guzman for the short- and long-term. Acquiring Guzman would theoretically solve the offensive conundrum. It remains to be seen if the Nationals will send Guzman to Boston. Now, for that starting pitching…

As Nick Green and Julio Lugo team up in an attempt to break the record for most errors out of shortstop (and we thought Edgar Renteria was bad), it’s time to start looking at outside options.

Green has been a great fill-in with the bat after no one expected him to even get a single at-bat on the year. On defense, however, his lead glove is starting to raise concerns. And Julio Lugo, of course, is Julio Lugo. We’ll get to our internal option, Jed Lowrie, in a moment. But for now, let’s focus on five shortstops the Sox could go after.